Houston Firefighters Head to Tornado-Ravaged Arkansas

A dozen Houston firefighters were dispatched to Arkansas Monday morning after tornadoes there ripped through the Little Rock area, killing ten people.

The 12-member Texas Task Force Team 1, which left Houston at 12:30 a.m. Monday, will assist in search and rescue activities.

The task force "is the most deployed urban search and rescue team in the country, and has responded to at least one major disaster each year since its first deployment in 1998," according to a Houston Fire Department press release. The force "is one of 28 national urban search and rescue teams" coordinated by FEMA.

The death toll may rise as emergency workers search the heavy-hit area, according to Faulkner County Spokesman David Hogue, CNN reported.

The storms were not isolated to Arkansas -- "about 3 million people in the South and Midwest are under a moderate threat for severe weather Monday" and "about 24 million are at slight risk of severe storms," according to CNN.